Money saved through finance minister Pravin Gordhan's clampdown on government costs could fund the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) - allowing for e-tolling to be scrapped.
This is according to the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa), which has welcomed Gordhan's budget cuts, due to "difficult times", and says it trusts, in this spirit, that government will reconsider scrapping e-tolls.
Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage says while Gordhan acknowledges things like scrapping government credit cards and alcohol spend, among others, would result in yearly savings of R2 billion, one must ask "why wait for difficult times before getting harsh on savings of this nature?"
He says SA requires strong corrective action and accountability throughout the civil service to address the billions of rands squandered each year through maladministration, poor procurement practices and corruption, as detected by the auditor-general.
"The fact that ministers and civil servants are allowed to remain employed in government after being exposed for squandering state revenues is a shocking disgrace and certainly does not display a serious approach toward accountable leadership."
Despite Outa's appeal against e-tolls being rejected by the Supreme Court of Appeal, some two weeks ago, Duvenage still hopes the government will reconsider binning e-tolls and putting the savings this will result in to good use by paying for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project - which he notes requires R2 billion a year over 20 years.
He reiterates what he says is an astounding reality, that e-tolls will enrich a foreign company with more than R13 billion over the next 20 years, paid for by local motorists. "Treasury should be doing all they can to prevent South African taxpayers' money - for use of social infrastructure - from leaving the country, let alone enriching any private company, foreign or local."
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